Along with the feelings of overwhelming relief that our bodies could finally rest and recover, walking into Santiago and finishing the Camino a last week extracted a heavy sense of gratitude from me.
Wait a minute..gratitude?
Why in the world would I be thankful for three weeks of daily picking up a backpack at 6am and walking through cold, foggy, windy mornings and hot, humid, draining afternoons? Why would I be thankful for putting my upper back and legs through pain I’ve never experienced before?
Those are fair questions. And the answer to them is pretty simple: If all of my attention was focused on how bad the weather was that day, how much pain I was in, and how long it was until the next hostel… this Camino would’ve been about me and how I felt and what I wanted.
But it wasn’t about me.
It was about Phillip, a nineteen-year-old who hitchhiked all the way from Denmark just to hike the Camino..and he just happened to stay at our hostel in St. Jean the night before we even started walking. It was about Fabrise, a programmer from France who happened to be between jobs… so he decided to hike the Camino, who we also met within the first hour on the first day of hiking. It was about the barista guy we met at a coffee shop in Pamplona that got a kick out of us butchering Spanish while trying to have a conversation with him. It was about Antonella and Laura, who we saw almost every day the second half of the hike. It was about Ben, a fifty year-old speedster who hiked from the Netherlands to do the Camino (he was so fast guys…I mean dang that guy could walk). It was about encouraging our team and growing as a unit and community in Christ.
The Camino de Santiago is meant to be a pilgrimage. The word “camino” is translated as “way.” A simple walk. A time set aside for self-reflection. A time to find meaning and purpose. A time to enjoy nature and the elements. Every day an innumerable amount of men and women, young and old, woke up well before the sun even thought about rising and set out for the next town. Some days would be short, others would be brutally long and ruthless… days of which the Camino can be notorious.
Different people from different continents. Different backgrounds. Different stories. Different lives.
Here’s the thing though, every single one of them is tirelessly pursued and loved by their Heavenly Father. Praising and bringing glory to Him is their purpose, as well as ours.
Nothing is ever about you or I. It’s about Him.
My experience on the Camino may have been strongly associated with pain and being able to tolerate it, but the people we encountered and befriended on it is what I’ll remember the most. I’m thankful for that. The Lord is sovereign and good.
Our team was in Mijas last week (a small, gorgeous town on Spain’s southeast coast a couple miles outside of Malaga) for our first squad debrief; and after a long day of travel involving two busses, a train, and a ferry across the Strait of Gibraltar, we are now in Casablanca, Morocco for month three, where we’ll be teaching English to muslims at a local university. Pray for the Lord to begin opening and drawing hearts to Himself.
The Lord is already moving too.
Much love for all of you! And thank you so much for praying. May the Lord bless and keep you close to him.
-Bradley
